PIEBIRDS IN COUNTRY LIVING MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2010

                                            Country Living magazine, November 2010

We all know the old nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence":

      Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye
      Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie
      When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing
      Wasn't that a pretty dish to set before the king?
     
      The king was in his counting house, counting out his money
      The queen was in the parlour, eating bread and honey
      The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes
      When along came a blackbird and nipped off her nose.

The old song was inspiration for the ceramic piebirds which became popular in the early twentieth century in England as a way to vent off the steam which bubbling away in a pie would cause the filling to overflow and make a mess of your oven and also spoil the perfection of the pie being baked. The "piebird" as it was called was a perky little addition which could be removed and washed up after the pie was served and then would decorate a shelf in the kitchen until needed again.
I've long loved these little kitchen treasures and picked up a few along the way. And seeing the article in last months COUNTRY LIVING magazine ( http://www.countryliving.com/antiques/ ) I decided to list them and see if there will be a demand for them. And so, check my page Other Great Stuff  (http://funkybabymine.blogspot.com/p/other-great-stuff.html) to view these sweet bits of kitchen decor.

Just reminding you that you have the rest of today to enter my free giveaway and the choice of a $50 or a $25 gift certificate to spend here. In addition, remember that there is no cost for shipping within North America on any items ordered by Dec31 so your Christmas shopping dollar goes much farther with me!

DON'T YOU LOVE VINTAGE APRONS?

 A little while back, I found a treasure-trove of vintage 1970's aprons and just now seeing a vintage apron hung on the back of a kitchen door of a restored bungalow in a blog I follow inspired me to post them here as well as on the page listing OTHER LINENS: http://funkybabymine.blogspot.com/p/other-linens.html
The one above reminds me of the colours I used in my first house, a bungalow
that I bought in 1970 - avocado green, orange and gold were all the rage then!

 The next apron is a somewhat different take on "chicken scratch" embroidery which seems to be having a bit of a revival just now - a trip down memory lane for me - I was around for the first round and even have the patterns to show it! Usually chicken scratch is done on gingham, but here a polka dot print has been chosen. It's really effective.

And another unusual apron - done in chicken scratch style, on dainty blue and white gingham and this time following a greek key pattern which adds a touch of sophistication to the country style gingham.
All of these aprons are under $20 in price and would make such a nice gift! As always, they are in pristine condition.
Also there is no shipping on all items purchased up to Dec 31/10 and if you enter my giveaway at -
http://funkybabymine.blogspot.com/2010/10/pre-christmas-giveaway.html  you can choose the chance to win either a $50 or a $25 gift certificate if you have a blog yourself.....